Liber Floridus. It is so large, in fact, that the top fifth or so of the circle goes off the page, and an additional piece of parchment needed to be added in order for the circle to be complete. This piece of parchment folds into the book when closed. Filling in the blank space around the outside of the map is text, and along the inside edge of the circle there are labelled rings. The outermost ring has the zodiac signs, then Saturn, Mars, sun and Venus. The innermost ring is the moon, and in between Venus and the moon there is a ring the label of which is no longer legible.

Within the rings there is a recognizable zonal map of the world, with the known world of Europe, Africa, and Asia on the left page and a southern temperate zone on the right. The northern habitable zone is strongly reminiscent of T-O maps in the division of land.

In between the two temperate regions is the inhospitable hot zone, but in this particular zonal map the hot zone is occupied by a red pathway. This equatorial track has a chart of the sun's movements over the course of a year on top of it. The combination of this pathway chart and the circles of the planets circling the earth on one map is interesting in that it would have provided viewers with two different ways to visually situate themselves in the heavens.

The map is mostly uncolored parchment, but the second most common color is a green that comprises both two planetary rings as well as what appears to be water surrounding the equatorial pathway and that encircles the world map, as well as coloring in rivers. Red is used for a single planet ring, the pathway chart, and two mountains in the northern temperate zone. There is a single blue planet ring, that of Mars. (Audrey Kastner '20)]]> Liber Floridus, 1121. archive.ugent.be:018970A2-B1E8-11DF-A2E0-A70579F64438]]>  Lamberti S. Audomari Canonici Liber Floridus: Codex authographus bibliothecae universitatis Gandavensis, ed. Albert Derolez. Gandavi: In aedibus Story-Scientia, 1968.]]> The Making and Meaning of the Liber Floridus. Turnhout: Brepols and Harvey Miller Publishers, 2015.]]>
Carleton Gould Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) AE2 .L36 1968.
]]> Zee-Atlas (officially De groote nieuwe vermeerderde zee-atlas), which contained 40 charts at its inception, and its follow-up, the Zee-Fakkel, paved the way for van Keulen and his firm to become the world’s preeminent supplier of maritime charts (History of Cartography 899-900, Lawrence Ruderman). The Zee-Atlas contains only charts, with no accompanying text, while the Zee-Fakkel, a pilot guide, contains both charts and text.

Because the Zee-Atlas is mostly visual, credit for its success should be given in large part to its artist, Jan Luyken, and its chart compiler, Claes Jansz Vooght. Jan Luyken and his son, Caspar, were extremely prolific engravers and book illustrators in Amsterdam from the mid-1600s to the beginning of the 1700s (Het Geheugen), while Vooght was a mathematician, surveyor, and teacher of navigation, and both created charts based on the knowledge of the “seafaring community”, and adapted charts by foreign map makers (History of Cartography 900). The maps themselves contain aspects common to portolan charts and maritime maps of the period, including rhumb lines and depictions of ships, as well as place names along the coasts. However, the opening page of the book contains a sumptuously illustrated depiction of the globe as a whole (see image), with four circles showing the northern, southern, eastern, and western hemispheres. Interestingly, though the rest of the maps in the book are labeled in Dutch, this first one is labeled in Latin. Surrounding these globes are illustrations that draw prominently from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as historical events. Examples include Cerberus, emerging from the fires of Hades; Zeus, posed with his arm drawn back holding a lightning bolt, as if about to throw it; and Poseidon emerging from the ocean, trident in hand. It is clear that the choice of illustration for this map draws artistic inspiration from ancient Greece and Rome, aligning it with the Classical era in music and the Neoclassical movement in architecture which occurred during this same time.]]> “History of Cartography: Volumes One, Two, Three, Four, and Six,” n.d. https://press.uchicago.edu/books/HOC/index.html.


“Het Geheugen,” n.d. https://geheugen.delpher.nl/.


Lawrence Ruderman, Barry. Antique Maps Inc. “Antique Maps by Johannes Van Keulen.” Rare Maps, n.d. https://www.raremaps.com/mapmaker/94/Johannes_Van_Keulen.


Ritchie, G. S. “The History of Hydrography an Enlightened European Era 1660-1800.” The International Hydrographic Review 68, no. 1 (May 19, 2015). https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ihr/article/download/23283/27058.

]]> Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) G1026.K48 2008.]]>
Giovanni Leardo made four maps during his lifetime, and three of them survive today. This element of a calendar is found in common between this 1442 map and his better known map from 1452. This feature sets his map apart because other maps of his time didn’t have the calendar drawn around the map or didn’t have a calendar at all.

This map shows many buildings and castles.These buildings give the map detail and color and function to highlight important landmarks. Like many other medieval mapmakers, Leardo found a lot of his information in classical sources. There is not a clear list of what sources he used, but it is thought that he may have modified or even made up some of the details in the map. He is most specific in his labeling of Europe, and the least detailed in his labeling of Africa. This likely means that he was able to get the most information about the geography of Europe, but lacked information about places farther away from him.

The map is situated with Jerusalem at the center, indicating that Leardo could have had religious motivations when making this map or that he had seen other world maps that shared this feature. Paradise appears as a city in the far east of the map; leading out of it are the four rivers that were thought to originate in Eden. This Paradise looks accessible from Earth rather than completely separated from the rest of Earth. Some of the text surrounding the map is from Scripture, but it is not perfectly quoted, which indicates that Leardo was likely not copying directly from Scripture when writing down the text.

The Mediterranean Sea is drawn with a detailed shoreline, as Leardo took care to represent the coasts and full shape of the Mediterranean. This reflects the influence of portolan charts, because they provided models that allowed other mapmakers to draw more geographically precise shorelines.

Leardo’s map is also noteworthy in that it is a zone map. This map has the uninhabited poles drawn in, which reflected beliefs at the time about zones of inhabited and uninhabited lands. It was believed that Europe, Asia, and North Africa constituted a habitable zone of the world, and that this was surrounded by areas where humans could not live. Leardo portrayed this with a bright red color below North Africa to indicate the heat of the equitorial zone and a shaded tan area north of Europe to indicate the cold polar region. Leardo’s choice of zone map format is significant because both of his other two surviving maps are also zone maps. (Lizzy Johnstone 2027)]]> ]]> Mappamondo di Giovanni Leardo: Lettera di Prete Gianni, ed. by Mauro Bini. Modena: Il Bulino, Edizioni d'Arte, 2015.]]> Facsimile Finder]]> Leardo Map of the World 1452 or 1453 at the American Geographical Society Library Digital Map Collection]]> Edson, Evelyn. The World Map 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Smet, Antoine de. "Review of Marcel Destombes, Monumenta Cartographica Vetustioris Aevi, Vol. I." Imago Mundi 22 (1968): 121–26. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1150447.

Unknown. “The Leardo Map of 1452.” Bulletin of the American Geographical Society 38, no. 6 (1906): 365–68. https://doi.org/10.2307/198901.

Woodward, David. “Medieval Mappaemundi.” In The History of Cartography, 286-370. Vol. 1. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1987. 

Wright, John K. The Leardo Map of the World, 1452 or 1453. N.p.: American Geographical Society, 1928. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/53480/pg53480-images.html.

]]> ]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) (GA308.L4 B565 2015)]]>
There is a large illustration of a fortified city on the eastern edge of the map. It is probably represents Paradise, as it is larger and considerably more detailed than any other city on the map, although it is not labelled. It sits across from the four rivers thought to originate in Paradise.

Around the outside of the map, a series of rings represent other bodies in the solar system that were thought to orbit Earth, including the Sun. 

The text that accompanies the map refers to Ptolemy (2nd century CE) and the portolan charts as sources, though scholars struggle to find elements drawn from these sources.]]> Weltkarte des Andreas Walsperger. Zürich: Chr. Belser AG, 1981.]]>
https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agdm/id/5150/]]> The World Map, 1300-1492: The Persistence of Tradition and Transformation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.

Meurer, Peter H. “Cartography in the German Lands, 1450-1650.” In The History of Cartography, vol. 3, edited by David Woodward, 1172-1245.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Flat Files) (G3200 1448 .W3 1987)]]>
The city is portrayed in high detail with individual buildings, gates, and other features labeled. The River Arno is a dominant feature on the landscape. It flows from distant mountains pictured in the background behind the city, through the center of the city where its channel is tightly constrained, and leaves the city in the foreground of the image.

The part of the city on the left bank of the Arno appears to have more buildings and greater density of buildings than the part of the city on the right bank. The dome of the cathedral dominates the city.  There are four bridges which span the Arno. The distinction between the city and the surrounding areas is clear, as curving city walls contain the city on both the left and right banks of the Arno. Gates allow for passage into and out of the city. The density of buildings is far greater within the walls than outside the walls, though the density of buildings varies considerably within the walls. In the countryside, there are scattered trees, hilly terrain, churches, and other buildings.

In the foreground of the image, people are shown fishing in the river and engaging in other activities on the river bank. A person close to the position from where the city is viewed is shown drawing in a book. A chain is represented surrounding the entire image, and in the top left corner there is a padlock with a dangling chain: it is from this chain that the map gets its name.

The map is titled "Fiorenza" instead of Firenze (Italian for Florence). The name was associated with peace and prosperity and was used in texts praising the city's prosperity; with indications of summer time (the trees just leafing out), it gives the image a tone of celebration.]]>
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/la-veduta-della-catena-florence-and-its-monuments-palazzo-vecchio-museum/JAIiVU6eaWEIJQ?hl=en

]]> The History of Cartography vol. 3, edited by David Woodward, 680-704.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Harvey, P.D.A. “Local and Regional Cartography in Medieval Europe.” In The History of Cartography vol. 1, edited by J.B Harley and David Woodward, 464-501. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987.]]> Carleton Library Special Collections Map (Map, Rolled) DG733 .K738 1998]]>
With very little attention to physical locations, intricate illustrations fill all of the land. The only locations labeled are coastal cities. The water is in striking visual contrast with the land, with navigational lines of portolan chart influence. The focus on navigation on the water indicates that these maps were likely used primarily for water navigation. However, the visual appeal is theorized to mean that they were often displayed on big tables for communal viewing.

The illustrations on the land are primarily scenes of people. The dress of the people vary by map, indicating knowledge of cultural differences around the world. The first map in the Atlas is thought to be of the east coast of Australia, and the illustrations are of an indigenous group. They are portrayed in a village, and there are people in and around it doing various things such as riding horses and working. Other maps include castles and royalty as well.

The illustrations in the water are also important in the context of map making at the time. Along with the typical portolan chart lines of navigation, there are compases, ships, and animals in the water. The maps are primarily oriented with south facing up, but the compases have a bigger north arrow facing the bottom of the page. Among the animals and boats there is a wide variety of stylistic choices, based on geography. Some of the creatures are mystical and exaggerated, while others are real and simple. The decisions made in the illustrations give insight into the degree of knowledge that Persians had of the rest of the world at the time. (Mia Beeman-Weber 2024)]]> ]]> ]]> ]]>
Uranometria’s more than 1200 stars (expanded from a stellar catalogue of 1005 stars compiled by Tycho Brahe in 1598) are labeled with a Greek or Latin character in order of descending brightness. Each star can therefore be identified by its constellation and letter--Alpha Draco, Epsilon Orion, and so on. This novel system is still in use today, and represents a clean break from the Ptolemaic system in which stars were identified by lines of prose. The constellations are placed on a grid that allows any given star to be located in the night sky to within a fraction of a degree.

Plate 49 shows 12 southern constellations only recently described by Europeans at the time of publication in 1603. Plates 50 and 51 are planispheres for the northern and southern skies respectively, used to show what stars are visible in the sky for any given time and date. Though the first edition included a table of stars on the verso of each plate, in later editions they were published separately as the Explicatio characterum aeneis Uranometrias and are not included in this particular text. (Scott Shafer ‘22)]]> Uranometria: omnium asterismorum continens schemata, nova methodo delineata, aereis laminis expressa, 1639]]> Uranometria: https://bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/discovery/fulldisplay?context=L&vid=01BRC_INST:CCO&search_scope=BOOKS&tab=BOOKS&docid=alma991005304779702971]]>
Kana, Nick “Alessandro Piccolomini and the First Printed Star Atlas (1540),” Imago Mundi, 58:1, 70-76, DOI: 10.1080/03085690500362355]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) QB6 .B34 1639]]>
Vaz Dourado’s remarkable use of color attests to a relatively expensive manufacturing process. The smaller islands in the maps are extravagantly colored and often take on a geometric shape. This intense color also appears in the maps’ exaggerated river deltas and the flags and crests which indicate ownership and often attest to colonial dominion. Other colorful embellishments on the map include its elaborate cartouches, ornamented with geometric and floral details on each page, and its compasses, from which the maps’ rhumb lines emerge.

The map includes annotations regarding the European discovery of various landmasses and islands, especially around the Pacific and Indonesia. This emphasis on naval exploration may also justify the inclusion of an almost empty map of the Pacific, which helps record the circumnavigational voyages that the sequencing of the maps can recreate. Compared to his predecessors, Vaz Dourado’s maps of Indonesia feature significantly more detail and mimetic accuracy, both in terms of island shape and place names. Other outstanding features include Vaz Dourado’s depictions of Japan, island chains in the Indian Ocean, Japan, island-dotted river courses in South America and the Middle East, East Asian architecture, and Mexico City/Tenochtitlan.]]> ]]>
Compare with another atlas by Vaz Dourado: https://hdl.huntington.org/digital/collection/p15150coll7/id/46230]]>
Garcia, João Carlos. “Description of the Atlas.” In Universal Atlas of Fernão Vaz Dourado: 1571 [Commentary Volume]. Barcelona: M. Moleiro Editor, S.A. 2013.
(See also this press release relating to the facsimile: Garcia, João Carlos. “Journey Around the World with the Universal Atlas of Fernão Vaz Dourado” M. Moliero – Facsimile Books. October 28, 2018, https://www.moleiro.com/en/press/journey-around-the-world.py.)

Melo, Maria João, Paula Nabais, Maria Guimarães, et. al. "Organic Dyes in Illuminated Manuscripts: A Unique Cultural and Historic Record." Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences 374, no. 2082 (2016): 1-20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26116084. ]]> Special Collections (Horizontal Shelving) ; G1001 .D68 2011]]>
Key pieces to note in the city itself are the numerous mosques throughout the city, with detailed depictions of the different types of domes on these mosques. Urban lakes supplied with water from the Great Canal of Cairo are shown. No interiors of buildings nor courtyards within building complexes are portrayed, suggesting that someone like Pagano did not go into many buildings and thus could not accurately depict what they would look like.

Beginning just outside the city limits to the northeast, the Nile flows out of the large mountains depicted along the east edge of the view. Emphasis is placed on the Nile and the various ways people interacted with the Nile. Vignettes abound throughout the map, and along the Nile, we see people bathing, washing clothes, collecting water, and even defecating into the river. Ships are also shown throughout the river, suggesting the key role the Nile played in transportation and trade.

Amidst the mountains to the east of the city are the Pyramids of Giza. The sculpture of the Sphinx is also shown a bit further south. This Sphinx appears to be female, which was the common opinion among Europeans, while it was always considered to be male by Muslims.

The extensive Venetian trade network could explain the numerous city views produced in the 15th and 16th centuries. A view like this one would have been used by merchants, geographers, humanist scholars, and aristocrats to learn something about the landscape of Cairo, the people who lived there, or the things to be traded for.

The accompanying text was written by the French humanist and cosmographer, Guillaume Postel.]]> Pagano, Matheo, and Guillaume Postel. The True Description of Cairo: a Sixteenth-Century Venetian View, edited by Nicholas Warner.  Oxford: Arcadian Library in association with Oxford University Press, 2006.]]> "La vera descritione de la grand cita del Caiero" (ca. 1549) from the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kuperstichkabinett ]]> The History of Cartography, vol. 3, edited by David Woodward, 1480-1503.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Warner, Nicholas. "The True Description of Cairo" April 10, 2012. The Metropolitan Museum of Art (lecture).  

Woodward, David. "The Italian Map Trade, 1480-1650." In The History of Cartography, vol. 3, edited by David Woodward, 773-803.  Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.]]> Special Collections (Map, Rolled) DT144.P34 2006

Special Collections (Books, Quarto) DT144 .P34 2006
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The focus of the chart is Earth as the center of the universe. Earth is represented by an image of baby Jesus Christ lying on the ground. Jesus is surrounded by two women, one of which is Mary. Mary has a halo around her head while the other woman’s hair is covered by cloth. Rolling hills lie behind Jesus with houses and foliage as background detail. Ruffled cloth is drawn to surround this image of Jesus. 

Outside Earth is a series of concentric circles divided into 36 segments. The outermost circle contains a symbol of each zodiac sign with Gemini at the top. The closest circle to Earth depicts the moon in the same segment as Taurus, the next contains Mercury which is portrayed between Sagittarius and Capricorn, the next contains Venus with Aquarius, followed by the Sun, again depicted between Sagittarius and Capricorn, Mars under Aries, Jupiter between Libra and Virgo, and lastly Saturn under Gemini. Each celestial body occupies a circle further from Earth at the center as the bodies presumably got further from Earth. The moon and sun have symbols of their own rather than the six-pointed star symbol used for the other five planets in the solar system.

Because the planets appear static in a constantly moving solar system and because Jesus Christ as the centerpiece of the chart, it can be assumed that this chart depicts Christ's horoscope from the day he was born. A hand is seen under the horoscope representing someone holding up the horoscope to the reader of the book. The rest of the page is left blank while a rectangular border encompasses the horoscope and the hand.

This chart was created by Stephan Fridolin and Michael Wolgemut as a guide for nuns at the Convent of Saint Klara in Nuremberg to enhance their passion for Christianity. The visuals in Schatzbehalter were created to be meditated upon by nuns which would give them enlightenment and knowledge through extensive observation of the woodcuts. Notably, the Schatzbehalter was published during the German reform period and was reproduced and shared by nuns to strengthen the spiritual life of the German people.

This chart symbolizes the massive progress made in astronomy during the medieval period. Most early medieval star charts, including this one, contained simple information based mostly on ancient texts rather than observation of the stars. Through the 16th century, much more emphasis was placed on observation of the night sky, and books such as star atlases were published that mapped the night sky and its constellations. The 16th century also saw the movement from geocentrism to heliocentrism disproving the planetary model depicted in the Treasury of the True Riches of Salvation.

The chart is an important example of evolving medieval technology as it relies on both printmaking techniques and astronomical practices. Michael Wolgemut was especially important to the printing community as he mentored Albrecht Dürer who was important in developing engraving technology and technique.

(Liam Atkins 2024)]]> Schatzbehalter. Portland, Or: Collegium Graphicum, 1972.]]> ]]> Digitized Copy at the Library of Congress]]> Breitenbach, Almut, and Stefan Matter, “Image, Text, and Mind: Franciscan Tertiaries Rewriting Stephan Fridolin’s Schatzbehalter in the Pütrichkloster in Munich,” in Nuns’ Literacies in Medieval Europe: The Antwerp Dialogue, edited by Virginia Blanton, Veronica O’Mara, and Patricia Stoop. Brepolis Publishers, 2017.

British Museum. “Das buoch das der schrein od' schatzbehalter heisset.” Last modified June, 2011. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1904-0206-1-1-96

Edson, Evelyn, and Emilie Savage-Smith. Medieval Views of the Cosmos. Oxford: Bodleian Library, 2004. 

Herlihy, Anna Friedman. “Renaissance Star Charts.” In Cartography in the European Renaissance, 99–122. University of Chicago Press, 2007. 

Wolgemut, Michael. 2018. In The Columbia Encyclopedia, by Paul Lagasse and Columbia University, 8th ed. Columbia University Press, 2018. 

Hall, Cynthia Anne. “Treasury Book of the Passion: Word and Image in the ‘Schatzbehalter.’” ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, 2002.

]]> Carleton Library Special Collections (Books, Quarto) (BT590.I3 F7 1972)]]>